Garrett Sparks

[mallory67]

I was a Garret Sparks supporter but not anymore. He’s been brutal and his numbers keep getting worse. Dubas miss evaluated him big time. I can’t believe he resigned him.

Same here. Perfect hindsight and we maybe shoulda sent Sparks through waivers. But he was an unknown, was young and had just led the Marlies to the Calder. You had to keep him over McBackup. McBackup has maybe a year or three left in his career.

But Sparks has clearly not shown much this season. His early wins were due to great run support by the offense.

 

[Jozay]

I said in October if we lose home ice by a couple points don't tell me a backup doesn't matter. Sparks is 7-7, McBackup 11-5 last year, under identical circumstances. In a zero sum parity league, every single point counts, only a fool dismisses the "backup" as irrelevant.

And here we sit.

Yeah, unfortunately this will have to be a costly learning experience for Dubas.

We wont have much to spend on a backup goalie next year, but hopefully he'll be able to find someone else.

 

[Egghead1999]

This is the thing about Dubas that scares me. He insisted on Sparks over Mac...he kept Justin Holl (who is Frankie Corrado 2.0) and just wants to promote the guys HE FOUND from the marlies. It is a concern going forward i have to admit.

Actually, it is fine to keep those players and giving them couple NHL years' money. I believe Dubas was rewarding them with the cup won. However, it is foolish to put Mcbackup on waiver

Oh, another thing is, McElhinney would've been gone next year anyways if he was this good.

leafs couldn't have afforded him.

Dubas, is that you?
C'mon, we worry about it when next year comes

 

[usernamezrhardtodo]

Actually, I am ok with keeping those players and giving them couple NHL years' money. I believe Dubas was rewarding them with the cup won. However, I am not ok with putting Mcbackup on waiver



Dubas, is that you?
C'mon, we worry about it when next year comes

"If you have time, use it"

 

[93WrapAround]

Anyone blaming him for last night needs to watch the first period again. 2 goals I thought were him. Mostly the one that was going wide and he completely moved past the post (duclair goal). The other was the one where it look like he fell..got a piece of it. But guys..wake up it's our team D and the fact we are missing 2 of our best defense

Here's the thing, and pardon me if it sounds rather novel - our defensive play AND our goaltending play can both be crap at the same time. I don't need to pin the sole blame on him yesterday to have seen that he was utter crap. I don't care which goals were solely his fault - he still didn't stop some of the goals that weren't his fault and average goaltenders would have stopped.

 

[jrgtml67]

Here's the thing, and pardon me if it sounds rather novel - our defensive play AND our goaltending play can both be crap at the same time. I don't need to pin the sole blame on him yesterday to have seen that he was utter crap. I don't care which goals were solely his fault - he still didn't stop some of the goals that weren't his fault and average goaltenders would have stopped.

Only 1 for sure was him (duclair) now when he came in for Freddy during the week he was better then good. Kept us in to come back. For sure Freddy hasn't been himself. But you dont go from a Vez wall to garbage. So while hes been off, dont you suppose that it makes sense the downfall started when we lost Dermott? Started with Jake but we were still ok. Dermott gets hurt then wheels fall off. I get what you mean, and I agree when talking about Freddy, bad timing, I mean if he played like he had been maybe we got a shot in a couple of those. The CHI lost pissed me off because we sucked, then remembered how to play. Now officiating has been bad for us all yr but to not call a penalty when the goalie loses his stick and magically the net comes off is bad, what's worse is there should've been 23.6 seconds left not 19.8. With that flurry at 19.8 left, I believe it would've mattered.

I like Marners comments best. Stop just talking about it and do it. But it's more than that. We've taken a too many men penalty every game, more or less since the CGY game. JT while still scoring a but has been off. Brown has been terrible minus PHI game. He got benched basically last night in the 3rd but that was too late. I think it's time to bench him and get Petan in. Also the issue last night was back to back. Against PHI Babcock finaĺly started double shifting Matty, Nylander, marner and Jt and we came back. I feel like he didn't last night because we played the night before.

Now look at shot totals Andersen is 25 back of Helley now. Before last week he was just below top 10 in shots against. We've given up 118 shots in the last 4 games. That's crazy.

Also I think Sparks is adjusting still. Go from playing every game to once in awhile. Where he needs work is rebounds and over playing the shot. But hes got better with over playing a bit. I think hes thinking too much. When he came in 2x this week cold he was very good and almost came back both times.

The leafs allow way too many high danger chances, and we saw this when Freddy was hurt, because he was masking the problem.

In any case they gotta do something now. With the shot of dubas last night, obviously frustrated, I wouldn't be shocked to see Timmy called up, mark in down. I'd like to see Sandin but feel that he would be best to stay with the Marlies and keep his confidence up

 

[93WrapAround]

Only 1 for sure was him (duclair) now when he came in for Freddy during the week he was better then good. Kept us in to come back. For sure Freddy hasn't been himself. But you dont go from a Vez wall to garbage. So while hes been off, dont you suppose that it makes sense the downfall started when we lost Dermott? Started with Jake but we were still ok. Dermott gets hurt then wheels fall off. I get what you mean, and I agree when talking about Freddy, bad timing, I mean if he played like he had been maybe we got a shot in a couple of those. The CHI lost pissed me off because we sucked, then remembered how to play. Now officiating has been bad for us all yr but to not call a penalty when the goalie loses his stick and magically the net comes off is bad, what's worse is there should've been 23.6 seconds left not 19.8. With that flurry at 19.8 left, I believe it would've mattered.

I like Marners comments best. Stop just talking about it and do it. But it's more than that. We've taken a too many men penalty every game, more or less since the CGY game. JT while still scoring a but has been off. Brown has been terrible minus PHI game. He got benched basically last night in the 3rd but that was too late. I think it's time to bench him and get Petan in. Also the issue last night was back to back. Against PHI Babcock finaĺly started double shifting Matty, Nylander, marner and Jt and we came back. I feel like he didn't last night because we played the night before.

Now look at shot totals Andersen is 25 back of Helley now. Before last week he was just below top 10 in shots against. We've given up 118 shots in the last 4 games. That's crazy.

Also I think Sparks is adjusting still. Go from playing every game to once in awhile. Where he needs work is rebounds and over playing the shot. But hes got better with over playing a bit. I think hes thinking too much. When he came in 2x this week cold he was very good and almost came back both times.

The leafs allow way too many high danger chances, and we saw this when Freddy was hurt, because he was masking the problem.

In any case they gotta do something now. With the shot of dubas last night, obviously frustrated, I wouldn't be shocked to see Timmy called up, mark in down. I'd like to see Sandin but feel that he would be best to stay with the Marlies and keep his confidence up

Yeah, I'm not disagreeing with you that our defense has been abysmal. Sure it's been a lot worse lately and since the injuries, but in truth, if we didn't have an elite goalie (Freddie) our team would be fighting for a wild card spot - which is quite telling given our offensive fire-power.

Freddy, I'm not really worried about. He's played poorly (again, simultaneously with the horrendous defensive play - ie. he's been letting in goals he normally doesn't let in, regardless of the increased scoring chances and shots), but I'll take his LARGE sample sizes of elite goaltending over any small samples (including last year's playoffs).

Sparks just hasn't been good and doesn't have the large good sample sizes, at least in the NHL, to offset anything. You suggest there was just one goal that was blatantly his fault but like I said, it doesn't negate the several goals that were not deflected, nor screened, and found their way into the back of the net, that an average NHL goaltender stops. No one would dispute that he hasn't made some great saves this year or had some great games, or that the defense has played abysmal in front of him - all that would be true. But it doesn't mean he's magically played well either, because he's been next to terrible. Too many goals let in that you'd expect an NHL goaltender to stop.

 

[deletethis]

Agreeing with the above post. There was more than 1 lousy goal against last night. There was only the 1 abandon-the-crease-for-no-reason goal but there were several open shot goals where he had a full look with no obstructions in his line of sight. Those other ones aren't as blatantly bad but they're a measure of mediocrity.

 

[Egghead1999]

"If you have time, use it"

Don't just use it, use it right and wisely

 

[Stephen]

Same here. Perfect hindsight and we maybe shoulda sent Sparks through waivers. But he was an unknown, was young and had just led the Marlies to the Calder. You had to keep him over McBackup. McBackup has maybe a year or three left in his career.

But Sparks has clearly not shown much this season. His early wins were due to great run support by the offense.

From a utility point of view, the move to keep Sparks over McBackup was obviously a mistake since we are better off with McBackup today.

From a organizational philosophy point of view, keeping Sparks, developing Sparks and finding out if Sparks can grow as a goalie and asset (apparently not) was absolutely the right call. Would have been a typical Old Leaf regime move to have gotten rid of a young player before you knew what you had in favor of a short term fix (Steve Sullivan vs Dimitri Khristich, Jason Smith to Edmonton, Rask for Raycroft, etc.)

 

[DarkKnight]

Sparks post game comments going over like a lead balloon with the former players on the radio.

 

[A1LeafNation]

From a utility point of view, the move to keep Sparks over McBackup was obviously a mistake since we are better off with McBackup today.

From a organizational philosophy point of view, keeping Sparks, developing Sparks and finding out if Sparks can grow as a goalie and asset (apparently not) was absolutely the right call. Would have been a typical Old Leaf regime move to have gotten rid of a young player before you knew what you had in favor of a short term fix (Steve Sullivan vs Dimitri Khristich, Jason Smith to Edmonton, Rask for Raycroft, etc.)

McElhinney falling apart late in the season as expected:
http://www.nhl.com/stats/player?agg...or=team.12&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,1&sort=wins

 

[nsleaf]

Sparks has not been good but how can posters say the Leafs would be better off now with McBackup? Hindsight opinions are silly.

 

[DarkKnight]

Sparks has not been good but how can posters say the Leafs would be better off now with McBackup? Hindsight opinions are silly.

Except if you said it in October, then it isn't hindsight, more "confirmation". I couldn't be less surprised it's turned out this way. And that isn't really self congratulatory, I mean it's striking to see such frantic positioning and rebound control, pedestrian knowledge suffices.

There was a poll on here in Oct, 14 percent picked Sparks to get the job based on camp. Your comment is actually silly.

 

[Stephen]

Sparks has not been good but how can posters say the Leafs would be better off now with McBackup? Hindsight opinions are silly.

Safe to say McBackup wouldn't have been used as a 1B option and given 30 games here in Toronto.

 

[ACC1224]

Sparks has not been good but how can posters say the Leafs would be better off now with McBackup? Hindsight opinions are silly.

Many were saying it before the season started and many were correct.

 

[justafan22]

I'd start him 4 of the last 8 games, since Boston isn't being catched unless they go 3-5 and the leafs go no worse than 6-1-1

 

[A1LeafNation]

Many were saying it before the season started and many were correct.

Mcelhinney sucks now

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

Sparks has not been good but how can posters say the Leafs would be better off now with McBackup? Hindsight opinions are silly.

Those aren't hinsight opinions those opinions were being expressed in September and those opinions were correct

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

I'd start him 4 of the last 8 games, since Boston isn't being catched unless they go 3-5 and the leafs go no worse than 6-1-1

So you'd choose to lose

 

[Le Cobra]

That Buf game was Sparks’ best as a Leaf. Hope this is a new beginning for him

 

[justafan22]

So you'd choose to lose

I'd rather not play andersen too much in meaningless games.

 

[ShaneFalco]

hmmmmmm

– Michael Hutchinson posted 30 saves for the victory and improved his record to 13-3-3. His save percentage for Toronto is now at .914 and he’s won his last three starts since leaving the game against Belleville for precautionary reasons.

Adam Brooks plays OT hero as Toronto Marlies grind out win in Bridgeport | Maple Leafs Hotstove

 

[saffronleaf]

Hoping Sparksy gets a few more games this season so he can finish his season on a high note.

 

[diceman934]

Except if you said it in October, then it isn't hindsight, more "confirmation". I couldn't be less surprised it's turned out this way. And that isn't really self congratulatory, I mean it's striking to see such frantic positioning and rebound control, pedestrian knowledge suffices.

There was a poll on here in Oct, 14 percent picked Sparks to get the job based on camp. Your comment is actually silly.

Yes there was a group of us all saying the same thing. I even suggested keeping 3 goalies until you were sure that Sparks could be an NHL goalie. We used him to tank how was that lost on everyone. Babcock played him because it gave us a better chance at losing. Yes it was two years earlier but his over all play had not changed as clearly shown both preseason before this year. It was not hindsight.